Managing Content in Cross-Cultural Public Relations Campaigns: A Case Study of the Paris Terrorist Attacks

This article studies how traditional media functions have changed due the new media growth in terms of consumption and influence and how this has affected the public relations (PR) campaigns in terms of storytelling and managing content. The starting point of this article is the media coverage of the Paris attacks on the 13th November, as well as the institutional ceremonies that the French government organized as a tribute to 120 victims. The methodology of this article is based in a sample of the mainstream media in French and English language published in Europe. The analysis indicators are the following: (a) the “message,” as the story based on organizational essentials, values and identity; (b) the publics in a media relations campaign: opinion leaders and opinion makers; (c) the social dimension and the agenda setting; (d) effectiveness versus excellence and vice versa; (e) role of the media: traditional media (or mainstream media) and new media; (f) trends and challenges for professionals. As we will see, new trends of communication are redirecting the media strategy in PR campaigns in terms of influencing other key publics that generates major engagement in institutional reputation. Hence, traditional media functions (setting agenda, transmitting values, and creating opinion) operate in a new digital context of mashup journalism where cross-cultural PR seeks to better align media agenda’s with public and political agenda’s in order to set frames of sociability and community engagement.